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Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman was an NBC network late-night comedy talk show created & hosted by David Letterman. The show aired from February 1, 1982 to on June 25, 1993. In August of 1993, Letterman would begin hosting the "Late Show with David Letterman" on the CBS network. In the years since, the show has been reformatted as "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers". Production After his morning show on NBC was canceled in October of 1980 after only 18 weeks on the air, David Letterman was still held in sufficient regard by the network brass (especially NBC president Fred Silverman). Upon hearing that Letterman was being courted by a syndication company, NBC gave him a $20,000 per week deal to sit out a year and guest-host a few times on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." In 1981, NBC and Carson (after significant acrimony) reached an agreement on a new contract, which (among other concessions to Carson) granted the venerable host the rights to the time slot immediately following "The Tonight Show". All throughout 1981 (in addition to guest-hosting the Tonight Show as outlined in the terms of his NBC contract, Letterman also frequently appeared as guest on the highly-rated program as the network groomed the 34-year-old for a new project. On November 9, 1981, NBC and Carson's production company Carson Productions as well as Letterman's newly-established production company, Space Age Meats Productions announced the creation of "Late Night with David Letterman" set to premiere in early 1982 in the 12:30 a.m. time slot Monday through Thursday, with occasional specials every few Fridays, all aimed at young men. The network wanted to capitalize on catering to young males, feeling that there was very little late-night programming for that demographic. The newly announced show thus displaced the "Tomorrow Coast to Coast" program hosted by Tom Snyder from the 12:30 slot. NBC initially offered Snyder to move his show back an hour, but Snyder (who was already unhappy with being forced to adopt changes to "Tomorrow" that he detested) refused and ended the show instead. The final first-run Tomorrow episode aired on December 17, 1981. Broadcast History Debut The staff responsible for preparing the launch of "Late Night" included Merrill Markoe in the head writing role, seasoned TV veteran Hal Gurnee as director, Letterman's manager Jack Rollins as executive producer, and a group of young writers (most of them in their early twenties), including the somewhat more experienced 29-year-old Jim Downey who had previously written for "Saturday Night Live" and 27-year-old Steve O'Donnell. Markoe stepped down as head writer after a few months, and was succeeded by Downey who was in turn succeeded by O'Donnell in 1983. O'Donnell would serve as the head writer through most of the rest of the show's run while Downey went back to "Saturday Night Live" in 1984. Also on board, initially as a production assistant in charge of the "Stupid Pet Tricks" segment, was 21-year-old Chris Elliott. Elliott would quickly be promoted to writer and a recurring featured player. The plan from the start was to resurrect the spirit of Letterman's morning show for a late-night audience, one more likely to plug into his offbeat humor. The show also got a house band, hiring NBC staff musician Paul Shaffer to lead the group; after several years on the show without a formal name, the band was eventually given the moniker The World's Most Dangerous Band in 1988. Realizing that NBC executives exhibited very little desire to micromanage various aspects of the show, the staff felt confident they would be allowed to push outside of the mainstream talk-show boundaries and thus set about putting together a quirky, absurdist, and odd program. Snyder's Tomorrow re-runs continued until Thursday, January 28, 1982. Four days later on Monday, February 1, 1982, the show premiered with a cold opening featuring Larry "Bud" Melman delivering lines as an homage to the prologue of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, followed by Letterman coming out on stage to Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" behind a group of female dancers; the peacock girls who had also opened the finale of "The David Letterman Show". After a brief monologue, the very first comedy segment was a sarcastic tour of the studio. The first guest, 31-year-old comedian and actor Bill Murray, came out in confrontational fashion, throwing jibes and accusations at the host as part of a knowing put-on. He remained for two more similarly sardonic segments in which he first presented footage of a Chinese zoo baby panda as a supposed home video of his recently adopted pet before expressing newfound love for aerobics and pulling a crew member onstage, making her do jumping jacks along with him to Olivia Newton-John's song "Physical." The second comedy piece was a remote titled "The Shame of the City"; taking a general format of a local news action segment, it featured Letterman touring several New York locations pointing out various civic problems with righteous indignation. The second guest was Don Herbert of TV's "Mr. Wizard" and the show ended with a young comic named Steve Fessler reciting aloud the script of the obscure Bela Lugosi film, "Bowery at Midnight." The reviews for the show were mixed; Los Angeles Times wrote: "Much of Letterman's first week did not jell", but more importantly, the show drew 1.5 million viewers, 30% more than had tuned in for Snyder's "Tomorrow." On the third night, after baseball great Hank Aaron finished his interview segment with Letterman, a camera followed him backstage where TV sportscaster Al Albert conducted a post-interview chat with Aaron about how it had gone. Eccentric and awkward, the show immediately established a sensibility that was clearly different from "The Tonight Show." The show was produced by Johnny Carson's production company, as a result of a clause in Carson's contract with NBC that gave him control of what immediately followed "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." For his part, Carson wanted "Late Night" to have as little overlap with his show as possible. In fact, most ground rules and restrictions on what Letterman could do came not from the network but from the production company itself. Letterman could not have a sidekick like Ed McMahon, and Paul Shaffer's band could not include a horn section like Doc Severinsen's. Letterman was told he could not book old-school showbiz guests such as James Stewart, George Burns, or Buddy Hackett, who were fixtures on Johnny's show (the fact that Tonight had long moved to Hollywood and Late Night was taped in New York helped minimize guest overlap). Letterman was also specifically instructed not to replicate any of the signature pieces of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" like "Stump the Band" or "Carnac the Magnificent". Carson also wanted Letterman to minimize the number of topical jokes in his opening monologue. Production and scheduling "Late Night" originated from NBC Studio 6A at the RCA (later GE) Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. The program ran four nights a week, Monday to Thursday, from the show's premiere on February 1, 1982 until June 4, 1987. The Friday shows were added on June 12, 1987, although the show still only produced 4 new episodes a week—Monday's shows were re-runs. (NBC previously aired "Friday Night Videos" in the 12:30 a.m. slot on Saturday morning, with occasional "Late Night" specials and reruns.) Starting on September 2, 1991, "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" was pushed back from 11:30 p.m. to 11:35 p.m., with Letterman starting at 12:35 a.m., at the request of NBC affiliates who wanted more advertising time for their profitable late newscasts. Letterman moves to CBS Letterman (who had hoped to get the hosting job of "The Tonight Show" following Johnny Carson's retirement) moved to CBS in 1993 when the job was given to Jay Leno. This was done against the wishes of Carson (who had always seen Letterman as his rightful successor) according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally, a onetime producer for both men. On April 25, 1993, Lorne Michaels chose Conan O'Brien (who was a writer for FOX's "The Simpsons" at the time and a former writer for Michaels at "Saturday Night Live"), to fill Letterman's old seat directly after "The Tonight Show." O'Brien began hosting a new show in Letterman's old timeslot, taking over the "Late Night" name. Accolades "Late Night with David Letterman" was nominated as "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series" for 10 consecutive seasons, from its second full season in 1983–84 through its final season in 1992–93. Including the nominations for the "CBS Late Show" variant, the Letterman team was nominated 26 consecutive times in this category. Primetime Emmy Awards *1982–83: Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program *1983–84: Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program *1984–85: Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program *1985–86: Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program *1989–90: Outstanding Directing in a Variety, Comedy or Music Program Category:NBC TV shows Category:Late Night Category:1980s television series Category:1990s television series Category:1982 Category:1983 Category:1984 Category:1985 Category:1986 Category:1987 Category:1988 Category:1989 Category:1990 Category:1991 Category:1992 Category:1993